And I loved her
by Maano
Summary: Emison au.
1. Chapter 1

**ONE**

It was already dark when Emily and Paige walked out to the parking lot after swimming practice. They'd been in the same team for a couple years and had become friends. They were chatting about homework and the upcoming swimming competition when they reached their bikes.

"You want to take a little detour and ride with me?" Paige asked, and Emily shook her head.

"Sorry, I should really get home, my mom already made dinner."

"Alright, maybe another time," Paige smiled, "get home safe." She said, while getting on her bike. "See you tomorrow!"

"You too!" Emily called after her as Paige rode off. She got on her bike and rode off in the other direction.

It was chilly, but still warm considering it was already October. Emily's hair was still wet from swimming so she'd put her beanie on, and she started pedaling faster so she'd get warm. She was almost home, only a few blocks left. She turned into the street where her friend Spencer lived, and was doubting to go and say hi, but she decided it'd be best to keep going, she was almost home now.

The headlight on her bicycle flickered a few times and then completely went out. Of course this happened in the part of the street without streetlights, so Emily rode her bike to the sidewalk and stepped off. She gave a few ticks against the light, and wriggled it a bit until it came back on. She realised she was standing in front of the house that had been for sale for a few years, and noticed that the For Sale board was gone. Emily frowned. Spencer never mentioned that she had new neighbors. Maybe she just hadn't met them yet.

"Hey," Emily heard a voice say. "What are you doing?"

The voice sounded curious. Emily looked around, but didn't see anyone. The voice must've noticed because a light was flicked on in front of the house. A girl was leaning over a railing on the porch, and smiled.

"Oh" Emily said when she saw her. She took her bike and walked a bit closer. I was just - um, the light on my bike went out, so. I just fixed it and noticed that the house wasn't on sale anymore."

"Yeah," the girl replied, "my dad said it'd been on the market for a really long time." She turned her head and looked the house up and down. "I'm pretty sure it's haunted."

Emily chuckled. "That wouldn't really surprise me, honestly."

Now that she was standing closer to the house, she took a good look at the girl. She must've been about the same age as Emily, but she was definitely smaller. She had blonde, almost golden locks, a heart shaped face and bright blue eyes. She was pretty, but the type of pretty that boys should watch out for. The girl smiled again and seemed amused, but before she could answer Emily, the front door opened and an older boy appeared.

"Ali, dad's been calling you, get inside." The boy said, and he disappeared again, leaving the door open.

The blonde - supposedly named Ali - shrugged at Emily. "Got to go!" She exclaimed "see y'around". Before Emily could say something back the girl was gone. She looked at her watch and realised she was already way too late, so she jumped on her bike again and hurried home. Her light flicked off again, but she made a mental note to just fix it tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**TWO**

Spencer had met her neighbours before, a long time ago. Emily had asked about the house at lunch the next day and Spencer went very quiet at first.

"They're .. old friends, of my parents." She eventually replied. "We're not really allowed to hang out with them."

One of Emily's other friends, Aria, frowned. "Why not?"

Spencer shrugged. "I don't know, they're being very secretive about all of it. All I know is that our parents have a past and that my dad made it very clear that my sister and I should keep away from them."

"That seems pretty sketchy to me," Hanna, the fourth member of the group of friends, commented. "But, like, your family always kind of tends to overreact, Spence. No offense."

Spencer frowned. "None taken?" She replied.

Hanna smiled sweetly and adjusted her Gucci sunglasses on her head. It was October and there wasn't any reason to be wearing sunglasses, but Hanna did so anyways. "I think," Hanna started, looking at Spencer and the others, "that we should go say hi. You know, welcome them to the neighborhood."

Spencer shook her head. "I don't know, Han. There's probably a reason why my parents don't trust them."

"Yeah," Aria agreed. "And I always thought that house was pretty creepy .. remember when we went there on Halloween?"

Emily was doubting wether or not she should say something about meeting the girl who lived there yesterday. Spencer would probably tell her to stay away, and Hanna would take advantage of the situation to convince Spencer that she's overreacting. Emily didn't like keeping secrets, but she decided not to cause drama, so she didn't tell. After all, it was just one short conversation.

The following days when Emily rode through Spencer's street, she didn't see the girl. She didn't look for her, but when she passed the house she always glanced at it, wondering what could be going on between theirs and Spencer's family. When she didn't see the girl for another week, Emily stopped thinking about it. Tt wasn't really her business anyway.

But then one night, after swim practice, Emily heard something as she was driving through Spencer's street. She took her car to school today because the weather had been so bad that morning. She heard a voice, shouting and crying. It came from behind the house where the girl lived.

Emily stopped in front of the house and rolled down her window. The screaming had stopped, all she could hear now was muffled sobbing, and a noise that Emily couldn't really place. It sounded a bit like a shovel. She knew that what was happening wasn't her business, and that it would be impolite to just walk into someone's garden and ask what's going on, but something was tugging on her. It wasn't just curiosity, but she had a feeling that if she wouldn't go, she'd regret it.

Emily shook her head. "No," she thought. "It's probably nothing". She started up the engine again and started driving away slowly, but it didn't take long before she stopped in the middle of the road, looked over her shoulder, and made a U-turn. She couldn't help it.

She parked in front of the house and cautiously walked around it. There was only one light on inside. She walked into the garden and saw someone, a woman. It was probably her who had been crying and screaming, Emily thought. She tried to be as silent as possible, only wanted to see what was going on and then leave, but she accidentally stepped on a twig and the woman turned around. Emily quickly hid behind a tree so the woman couldn't see her, but Emily now saw what she had in her hands. A shovel.

Emily shuddered. That person wasn't burying anyone, was she? What had she walked into?

The woman frantically looked around, dropped the shovel and while still glancing in every direction, she made her way into the house. A few seconds later Emily saw the light go off.

The girl stood there, breathing heavily. What the hell had she just witnessed? If the woman could just enter the house, did she live here? Was she Ali's mother?

Emily didn't know what she had to do. She felt like she'd made a terrible mistake. She should've left. She shouldn't have witnessed this. But then she heard something from the spot where the woman had stood. It was soft and muffled, and Emily shivered when the thought crossed her that it sounded like a voice from underground.

She was really starting to get scared now, and she wanted to do nothing else but leave and pretend like nothing had ever happened, but she kept hearing the sound. Very cautiously, she walked towards it. At first she didn't see anything, but when scanning the ground, she saw something like a pit in the ground with a pile of sand next to it.

"Oh my god" Emily whispered. That woman had actually been burying someone here. She started to freak out and started taking steps backwards, determined to call the police once she was home and safe again. But before she turned around to run off, she took a last look at the newly dug "grave" and was utterly shocked. There was movement. On a certain place, the ground was being pushed up, something was pushing through, until a hand suddenly reached surface and started wiggling around. Emily gasped and stood there, nailed to the ground. She could hardly breathe. There was the sound again.

Was it sometime asking for help? If she didn't help them and they died down there, she would be an accomplice, right?

Even though Emily's entire body was shaking at this moment, she took a deep breath, and reached for the hand. "Please don't fall off please don't fall off" she whispered under her breath as she grabbed the hand tightly and started pulling on it.

It didn't take much time or a lot of strength for the person underground to appear. First the arm came, then the torso, the head, and the other arm. Legs and feet came last, the person could barely stand.

Completely covered in dirt, the person let themselves be pulled up by Emily, crying. She could now see the this person was a girl. And when Emily looked at her face, her heart stopped for a second. This was _the_ girl.

The girl was shivering and shaking and crying, and she held on to Emily like her life depended on her. Her skin was cold as ice, the only thing she was wearing was jeans and a yellow tank top. Emily decided not to bring her to the house, after all, the woman who buried around was inside there, but instead take her straight to the hospital.

Emily picked her up and carried the girl to her car. She laid her down on the backseat and fastened one seatbelt around her, so she wouldn't fall down. Emily drove off to the nearest hospital and went straight to the ER. She parked her car, got out, and carried the girl inside. After telling what had happened the nurses took over and got the girl a room and everything.

Apparently she was hypothermic from lying in the cold ground for too long, and of course she could hardly breathe under the dirt , so Emily had saved her life by getting her out right on time.

While the nurses took care of Ali, Emily sat in the waiting room and called her mom, who had been worried sick. Emily told the entire story and her mom was determined to come over to the hospital for support but Emily told her not to. It was already late, she would come home as soon as she could.

One of the nurses came to update her and ask her if she knew the girl's name. "I think her name is Ali" Emily replied. "Maybe short for Alison? I don't know, I've only talked to her once."

The nurse gave her a smile and told her that it wasn't a problem that she didn't know, she had done the girl a big service already by bringing her here. Emily hinted a smile back. "Can I see her?" She asked. "She must be so scared."

The nurse nodded. "Of course," she said. "Follow me."

While walking to the girl's room, the nurse explained that since Emily wasn't family, the door had to stay open or a doctor or nurse had to be in the room. Emily didn't make a problem out of it.

When she entered the room, the girl looked entirely different. Her dirty clothes were off, she was just wearing a hospital gown, and her hair and face were cleaned up too. She looked so small and vulnerable, but mostly just really, really scared. She was lying on her side, facing the window.

"Hey" Emily said softly, not wanting to startle her. She jumped a bit anyway. "How are you feeling?"

Very slowly and cautiously, the girl turned her head to look over her shoulder. When she saw Emily, she proceeded to turn around, but didn't answer her.

"I'm Emily.. We spoke one time, on the street, about a week ago. I don't know if you remember me."

The girl blinked. "I - uh, I brought you here. To the hospital. I - I pulled you out .."

The girl's eyes widened a bit. She started breathing more heavily.

"Hey, easy, easy," Emily whispered as she came closer and sat down in the chair next to the bed. "You're safe here, okay? There are all these nurses and doctors, and people to take care of you .. and I'm here .. It's all good, you're going to be fine .. No one who wants to harm you here, okay?"

The girl took a deep breath and nodded softly. "Okay" she whispered. It was barely understandable, her voice was raspy and shaky, but Emily smiled.

"Okay."


End file.
